As a funding agency, the Office could serve as the very public face of President Obama's efforts to deliver critical social services to people in need during these trying times. Local agencies, soup kitchens, and food pantries run by community and religious groups have been hit hard by declining charitable giving at the very time demand for their services has multiplied. The Office's grant programs could be expanded so that funding for vital social services is increased. The Office could serve as a key part of President Obama's arsenal of tools to bolster the safety net for those most seriously afflicted by the economic downturn.
While these monies represent a very small stream of critical funds, they might in some cases help economically stabilize individuals in local communities, bringing some points of light into financially darkened lives.
The Office could also be more than a funding agency. While President Obama has been talking regularly about the need for all Americans to make tough choices and sacrifices, he has largely focused the rhetoric on individual responsibility. A tremendous opportunity exists for the President to link this astute moral leadership together with the Office's mission. The Office could develop a broader agenda of mobilizing local community organizations and neighborhood groups to rise to the challenges we face together.
Obama even outlined a vision for this broader mission during the campaign, saying "I still believe it's a good idea to have a partnership between the White House and grassroots groups, both faith-based and secular."
The Office, led by a President who has already proven himself to be the Community-Organizer-in-Chief, could mobilize churches, mosques, and synagogues together with local Kiwanis, Girl Scouts, and Lions Clubs and call them into service to help needy people ensure that their basic needs are met. He could use the Office to unite all non-profits and religious groups in the common task of working for the benefit of others.
Such a task for the Office would provide largely non-financial assistance, leveraging the vast network of local churches and community organizations across the land. These "thousand points of light" could turn to the Office for knowledge about best practices for identifying and meeting needs across a variety of areas like education, housing, financial and job training, and health care. The Office could mobilize the community members and give them the logistical resources and information they need to actually help people. The Office could help drive policy changes that free groups from obstacles that impede effective delivery of social services and humanitarian assistance. All the while, the Office should be listening and learning from these groups on the ground about what policy changes might improve real peoples' lives.
Make no mistake--partnerships between religious organizations and government can entangle these realms in ways that are mutually harmful. The old challenges still lay ahead, particularly the thorny issue of whether religious organizations who take federal funds should be able to take religion into account when hiring employees.
Yet tremendous opportunities exist for the Office to help carry out tasks central to President Obama's plan for stabilization and recovery. Religious and community groups will not stand idly by while their neighbors suffer during these hard times. The Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships could be a critical leader for those groups. It's high time that President Obama puts the Office in the public eye as a core part of his administration's recovery plan for the country.
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Today from noon-1:30 p.m., Georgetown University is hosting a symposium to investigate the new challenges for the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. Panelists E.J. Dionne, Ira C. Lupu, Melissa Rogers, and Stanley Carlson-Thies will conduct the symposium in the Copley Formal Lounge.
Some background issues and proposals can be found in a Brookings Institution report authored by Dionne and Rogers. More information can be found on the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace & World Affairs.
